From what I can see in the thread, you’re smart, you obviously have a solid sense of what customers need (product wise) and ability to execute on it, you’re motivated, you don’t put up with BS, and you can listen to harsh but accurate criticism - you’re going decently far regardless, in my opinion.
You’ve also found a decent product with a clear market need and have turned it into positive cash flow. That is the start of something that can be leveraged very well if you know how to do it.
I’m just taking a wild guess here - take what’s useful and please ignore the rest. I don’t know you.
What may be helpful is realizing that much of what got you here may be getting in the way of getting you to the larger opportunity.
For one, being no BS means you may be neglecting good opportunities to get exposure and business because it feels fake. You may not be aware of the business models of the people who build large audiences or how to leverage them, of the influencer or advertising markets and tools for instance. I think you have some opportunity if you get someone clever who specializes in it. But first you need to find out someone who knows that that looks like, or iterate and learn yourself.
Your being locked into the product and able to see through bs may also be stopping you from truly understanding the mindset/awareness of the bulk of users (and their general lack of knowledge), in a way that you can clearly reach them. Knowledge of actual capabilities and the full system can be a real curse in selling, because it makes everything too complicated and makes it hard to understand where 99% of your potential customers will be - which is complete ignorance of you, your product, and the space.
And you have to make it easy for them to give you money, and use every opportunity you can to show your product and how it helps people, or you’re wasting visibility and leads you’ll never get back. This thread is obviously helping you, and I never cry over the past. Future posts could be even better (and get you more revenue) with a bit more work on some very minor (time wise) details.
I did make a prior employer a bit under half a billion ARR by identifying the need for, starting, and then leading an effort that fixed some similar (but not as severe from what I can tell) challenges for one of their products. This was from within Engineering as an Engineer and later senior Eng leadership. They did have a more established product and presence.
Unfortunately, I am also busy getting my third startup moving and this week and next are not great for taking on anything new.
A friend of mine who is very low BS and has given me some useful (and brutally direct) feedback that I’ve personally found invaluable is Naeem Zafar [https://www.naeemzafar.com/]. He’s done a lot of books and classes on various elements (mostly so he doesn’t have to keep repeating himself). I’d be curious what you learn if you go through the 7 Steps to a Successful Startup ebook. It’s only about 30 pages, quite to the point, and $10.
It may help you structure some of what you have now in a way that may point out the gaps in the skill sets on your team and the structure that could help you. It may not.
I don’t really use Twitter, but I’ll put it on my list to reach out in a couple weeks and see if any of this was helpful. I’ll make sure to mention this thread.
Best of luck! Making a viable business is one of life’s greatest challenges and you’re showing good promise.
